Current Status
There is currently no activity around death with dignity legislation in Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma State Legislature passed a law requiring “assisted suicide” be listed on death certificates issued for patients who died using medications prescribed under a death with dignity law (Oklahoma does not have a death with dignity statute.).
Resources
Oklahoma State Legislature website
Death with Dignity Legislative Tracker
History
2018
Oklahoma State Representative Steve Kouplen (D-Beggs) sponsored a bill (HB 2585) that would have ordered a referendum on the Oklahoma Death with Dignity Act. The bill did not move.
2017
Representative Kouplen (D-Beggs) introduced a House Joint Resolution, HJR 1009, calling for a statewide referendum on the Oklahoma Death with Dignity Act to be held in the June 2018 primary election. The bill languished in the House Rules Committee.
Also in the 2017 session, HB 1495, Death Certificate Accuracy Act, which would require listing “suicide” as the cause of death under an assisted dying law that may pass in the future, passed in the Oklahoma House of Representatives and was referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
2015
In January 2015, Representative Kouplen introduced HB 1673, the Oklahoma Death with Dignity Act. The bill was referred to the Public Health Committee and did not make it out of there.
The 2015 session was the first time a Death with Dignity bill was considered in the Oklahoma legislature.
